What we eat affects our health and the health of the planet
Globally, our food system is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, second only to emissions from fuel consumed in generating electricity and heat.
While our food environment doesn’t make eating well easy (see the Winning the Food Fight Primer, below), here are 5 simple things you can do to eat well while protecting the planet.
- Eat plant-based foods
- Find alternatives to red meat
- Minimize food waste
- Avoid packaged foods
- Buy what’s in season
Reports & Presentations
Eating for the Climate
By: Alejandra Marquez
In the context of climate change and growing concerns for healthier food systems, plant-forward dining is gaining momentum. Putting plants at the center of our plates provides both environmental and health benefits. Plant-forwarding dining is advanced by a multitude of higher education institutions and by prominent initiatives such as Menus of Change and the Good Food Institute. Here at UC Berkeley, we seek to understand the best strategies to support our students in shifting towards healthier and more sustainable food systems.
Winning the Food Fight: Reclaiming our Health using Corporate Food Industry Tactics.
By: Karina Mudd & Pauline Miller
WHAT EVERY CONSUMER SHOULD KNOW
Over the course of a day, we face hundreds of decisions related to food consumption alone. To manage so many decisions, we take mental shortcuts to conserve mental energy.
This primer aims to highlight how our food environments are designed to take advantage of our mental shortcutting, making unhealthy products convenient, salient, and recognizable (among other tactics), leaving us vulnerable to making poor dietary choices.